LAWSUIT Woman claims Clinton affair cost her job with Quakers

The Quakers harassed her after learning of the relationship, the suit alleges.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
PHILADELPHIA -- Would a Quaker group resort to harassing and shunning an employee after learning she'd had an affair with former President Clinton?
Would they suggest she date a 91-year-old Quaker board member, or place photos of "elderly and scantily-clad men" on her desk? Hand her "unsolicited religious literature" and imply she was a "fallen woman"? Tell her to wear "longer skirts and less makeup"? Steal her mail, vandalize her car and say she'd be "better off if she learned Quaker ways"?
That's exactly what Myra Belle "Sally" Miller says happened to her at the hands of the West Chester Meeting of Friends, in West Chester, Pa. Miller on Thursday sued the Quaker organization and its school in federal court in Philadelphia, alleging sexual and religious harassment, discrimination and retaliation.
The suit seeks unspecified money damages and an order prohibiting the defendants from future sexual or religious discrimination.
Allegations
Miller, who is not a Quaker, served as the group's "director of fund-raising and public relations" between 2001 and last Nov. 8, when she was fired, the suit said.
It also states she "was involved in a sexual relationship with former President William Jefferson Clinton" before taking the job. It gives no clue as to when the alleged affair with the president took place.
She says that her former employers "illegally subjected her to sexual and religious harassment and discrimination after learning of this relationship."
Then they allegedly fired her because she complained of the harassment to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Miller, of Alexandria, Va., declined to discuss her case with a reporter. She referred questions to her lawyers, Timothy M. Kolman and Wayne A. Ely, of Langhorne, Pa.
She hung up before the reporter could ask if she was the Sally Miller Perdue, a former Miss Arkansas, who has claimed to have had a three-month affair with Clinton in 1983. Asked the same question, Ely said neither he nor his partner would answer any questions about the case.
Perdue, Miss Arkansas 1958, issued her allegation about the affair after Clinton's 1992 presidential election campaign. She also contended she had been offered a government job to keep her quiet. Perdue later appeared as a Playboy centerfold.
There also was no comment from the Quakers.
The suit states that the West Chester Meeting of Friends is a religious organization and that its school serves more than 130 students in grades K-5.
Miller's attorneys contend that the defendants "violated" the school's "mission statement," which stresses "the dignity of all people, and the settling of differences through peaceful means."
Discrimination charges
Miller first filed discrimination charges last October with the EEOC's Philadelphia office. The agency was unable to resolve the case and gave her permission on July 30 to file a federal lawsuit.
The suit states that she was told by one of her managers in February 2001 that a school board member knew of the sexual relationship with Clinton.
"The relationship had in fact occurred but ended before" Miller started working with the Quakers, the suit notes. "Despite the fact that" Miller "made it clear she did not wish to discuss same, they began subjecting" her "to a continuing pattern of harassment and discrimination based on her sex and religion," the suit alleges.